Statement

Employing the visual alternative realities found in science fiction film and literature, I work in reverse on clear plastic, layering paint to create abstracted one-dimensional images. Then by abstracting the picture plane into individual curved 'Tubes', they are joined back together to create a three-dimensional image. This presents a new model for viewing a once flat plane as well as a vision of what could be. While the structural component creates dimensionality, the one-point perspective conveys a sense of movement and space. This illusion of space that was widely used during the Renaissance period becomes altered through the curve of each tube. In science fiction, the corridor often conveys the vast size and reach of space. Building on that by utilizing one-point perspective to create images of corridors, I am interested in the transitional experience of moving through that space, moving in-between point A and point B. With the rise of popularity of Dystopian themes in fiction and the noticeable similarities in politics today the fragility of my material is analogous with the fragility many feel in the world today. As information is presented as both true and false, similarly the ‘tubes’ allow for information to disappear and reappear, leaving a broken image while also presenting the whole ‘truth’. The visual fictions in my work are summed up by Margaret Atwood from an interview with The New Yorker, “If you see a person heading toward a huge hole in the ground, is it not a friendly act to warn him?”.

Biography

Rachel K. Bury was born in Eureka, California, and lives in Austin, Texas. Her work has been shown at grayDuck Gallery in Austin, Lullwood Group in San Antonio, CB1 Gallery in Los Angeles, Galerie Camille in Detroit, Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Sullivan Galleries in Chicago. She was published as a Juror’s Selection in New American Paintings MFA Annual No. 105 in 2014 and West No. 126 in 2016.